FARM’S FUTURE HOPES RIDE ON STORM FIGHTER

Rating the prospects

RAMONA 
It’s safe to say that it’s been quite a while since the phones rang as much, the buzz was as strong and the atmosphere has been as electric as it has been this week at Golden Eagle Farm.

Tucked away off Highway 78 in the spring-green, rolling hills here, Golden Eagle Farm’s glory days in horse racing mostly were faded in the dust of open pastures, buried in the honored grave sites of past champions like Best Pal, General Meeting and Salt Lake.

But then along came a talented 3-year-old colt, Storm Fighter, to change all that. The son of Stormin Fever out of Thorne Seeker (by Deputy Commander) has given the surviving family members and farm employees at this historic horse breeding farm new life. And the colt couldn’t have emerged as a runner at a better time, coming on after bad economic times forced cutbacks and the death in December of the farm’s head man, Larry Mabee, the son of Golden Eagle’s iconic founders, John C. and Betty Mabee.

Listed at 15-1 odds on the morning line for today’s 76th running of the storied Santa Anita Derby, Storm Fighter has given the farm’s new head man, John R. Mabee, and the surviving core of a farm crew reason to dream of the May 4th Kentucky Derby. Though he has only won once and taken a second from three starts, the colt has forced the Mabees to put future plans for the farm on hold, for now.

“Good News Day, one of our top mares, had her first foal, Wild Media, win a maiden special race last week,” said Janine McCullough, general manager of Golden Eagle Farm. “It was the first race John R. Mabee (grandson of the founder, John C. and son of Larry Mabee) has been to in 10 years. He’s keeping the farm going into a third generation. He’s such a kind man. He told me last night that his time of taking over the farm will be the most exciting time in his life. The Mabee name will go on in horse racing, and I’m honored to continue working for the Mabees.”

A win, worth 100 qualifying Derby Points, or even a second-place finish (worth 40 points), in the Santa Anita Derby by Storm Fighter will give Mabee and McCullough a reason to send the colt to Churchill Downs for his next race. But it’s such an improbable dream considering the horse’s trainer, Bruce Headley, at 79, has never had a horse in the Kentucky Derby, much less won the Santa Anita Derby. The jockey is Hall of Famer Gary Stevens, still in the early strides of a courageous comeback after seven years away from the game as a rider. And then there’s the farm, scaled down to mostly bare stalls in 2007 when hundreds of horses were sold, reducing the stock from 750 in its prime producer as the top breeder in California and the nation, to just 53 horses today. The farm crew is down to 10 employees led by McCullough, Lori Piedra, her husband, stallion manager Manuel Piedra and brood mare manager Jesus Moran. Manuel Piedra and Moran have been with Golden Eagle for over 30 years.

“All that and we have a horse who is an unknown and virtually untested,” McCullough said. “Larry Mabee really wanted to see this colt run. But he died before he could. This is the stuff they make movies about.”

There’s also the surveillance issue that caused such a stir this week after McCullough teamed with Headley and his daughter, Karen, his assistant trainer, to push for 72-hour surveillance for all Santa Anita Derby starters leading up to the race. They raised over $15,000 to get it done after not getting any funding from trainers, owners or California racing board officials.

“In the last 45 days we won three races (with Storm Fighter, Candy Factory and Wild Media),” McCullough said. “The other day, Storm Fighter was asleep in his stall at 2 in the afternoon and having a puppy dream, kicking at the air. I said, ‘I hope you’re winning the Kentucky Derby right now buddy.’ Karen and I were rubbing him on his back. I told Karen we’ve put a lot of pressure on this horse. Not in his training, because he’s doing that on his own, but emotionally and mentally, with the surveillance stuff and now the Kentucky Derby possibility and trying to save the farm. We’ve had a lot going on here.”